patrick.net

WookieMan says

You're almost 25% to victory if you get CA. Some local commission shouldn't stop space launches. At some point I do think the federal government needs to step in on CA.

California needs to be broken in at least half.

Virginia was ridiculous until the Civil War. At some point, say 40 Electoral Votes, a state must be broken up.

HeadSet says

Aren't the Teslas built in China sold in China? Are any of the Teslas sold in America imported?

No Chinese models are sold in the US. Chinese models are primarily sold in Asia, Africa and parts of Europe.

BTW - got this new beauty coming next month in the new Quicksilver color.

Texas build using their new paint shop in Austin! Most American made car in the land.

AmericanKulak says

Virginia was ridiculous until the Civil War.

True, we sawed off the ridiculous part.

socal2 says

BTW - got this new beauty coming next month in the new Quicksilver color.

To each their own. Not judging. That car is ugly AF. Wouldn't work for people that have kids. No utility. What do people actually do? I pull and put heavy stuff in trailers and have 5-8 passengers. That car is literally useless to me beside looking like shit.

I don't know, I'm handy. I rarely hire people out to do anything for me. I need a car that can help with that. No EV make/model can do what I need to be done. By a long shot too. I also don't just sit at home. Not saying you can't like them, they just don't make sense for a large portion of the population.

HeadSet says

True, we sawed off the ridiculous part.

The fighting part. The rest is Admins and Bureaucrats.

WookieMan says

Wouldn't work for people that have kids. No utility. What do people actually do?

My existing Tesla works absolutely fine for me (wife, 2 kids and a mother-in-law) and the majority of Americans that will never need to tow a thing or drive 10,000 miles a month in the frozen tundra.

My new lease payment is only $430 a month. I will save over $150/month in gas on top of that. You can't find a better deal to drive one of the planet's most advanced and FUN cars to operate.

socal2 says

WookieMan says

Wouldn't work for people that have kids. No utility. What do people actually do?

My existing Tesla works absolutely fine for me (wife, 2 kids and a mother-in-law) and the majority of Americans that will never need to tow a thing or drive 10,000 miles a month in the frozen tundra.

My new lease payment is only $430 a month. I will save over $150/month in gas on top of that. You can't find a better deal to drive one of the planet's most advanced and FUN cars to operate.

We don't pay gas. Get reimbursed monthly. Tow weekly. Camp frequently. Get off road to an extent. Just had 8 people in my wife's 4 Runner for the Chicago Marathon this weekend. One less car in the city.

We drive a lot and there's no chargers here in IL or WI without going 30 minutes out of your way and then waiting another 30-60 for a charge. We don't live in an urban area. Our time with worth exponentially more than a fun ride.

I can install the service to charge an EV in my home no problem. M-F fine, that would work. Charge at night, come the weekend, nope. It's not uncommon to travel 400 miles for us pulling a trailer or camper. Not one EV can do that by a long shot. We'd need to stop 3-4 times for a full charge. I'll golf with buddies. 4 dudes and 4 sets of clubs ain't gonna work and we'll drive 100 miles to golf. The human and golf club weight would easily cut 20% off the range.

Two of the people that were at the marathon with us had Teslas. I've driven one of theirs. They're middle of the road on the them. Fun to drive. Range anxiety. They live near where I do. One couldn't find a charge and ran out of battery. Not every place is CA. There really aren't that many chargers except in the city.

Even rural I can walk to a gas station in 5-10 minutes if I ran out of gas. Can't carry electric in a can. I'll be sticking with ICE vehicles the rest of my life. Even when the kids move out.

WookieMan says

I'll be sticking with ICE vehicles the rest of my life. Even when the kids move out.

You already own a battery operated golf cart!

Besides - by the time we are old and shouldn't be driving, we will be hauled around in Tesla's autonomous Cybercabs. They will probably have some Uber drones for greater distances too.

socal2 says

You already own a battery operated golf cart!

Yes. A cart. It's not a vehicle. There's no acronym for golf cart. It's a cart. It's not ATV, UTV, SUV, etc.

socal2 says

Besides - by the time we are old and shouldn't be driving, we will be hauled around in Tesla's autonomous Cybercabs. They will probably have some Uber drones for greater distances too.

No. I need to drive. I need control. I don't trust anything. My eyes works just fine. There are t-bone accidents that you cannot avoid regardless of a 1,000 sensors. I live in an area with cornfields at rural intersections. There's no way a Tesla can stop that. You have to get partially in the intersection when the cross traffic doesn't stop. Then people blow lights and stop signs. I'd have no faith.

Elon held a ~1 hour Pro-Trump Townhall in Pennsylvania earlier today:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1847024043536404569

Featuring a dark MAGA hat and US Flag backdrop.

Atlantic at it again

https://vigilantfox.news/p/elon-musk-drops-unforgettable-take

Elon Musk fired up a packed crowd at Ridley High School in Pennsylvania today, delivering an unforgettable 55-minute speech. Right out of the gate, the world’s richest man got the crowd cheering when he said, “The hell with” anyone who opposes free speech, the Constitution, secure borders, and sensible spending.

“I've been told at times that these are, like, right-wing values. I'm like, ‘Are you insane?’ These are literally the fundamental values that made America what it is today. And anyone who's against those things is fundamentally anti-American. And the hell with them!”

It didn’t take long before a Trump supporter shouted to Musk that George Soros is “evil”—to which Musk responded with a clear “Yeah.”

He said Soros is “honestly misanthropic” and that “for someone who sort of claims to be doing good, but actually he is not. He is tearing down the fabric of society.¨

Musk continued to drop 90 seconds of pure facts.

He said the Second Amendment is there to protect the First and warns that once you disarm a population, the country is doomed to become Venezuela.

Musk then called out Maduro, saying that he lost in a landslide but rigged the election. And the only reason Maduro was able to hold onto power is because the disarmed citizens can’t fight back.

“So now you're facing soldiers with assault rifles. Are you going to throw some sticks at them or something? Use finger guns? It doesn't work. So Maduro, even though he lost the election, is still in power. And that's the kind of risk that we face,” Musk said. ...

The local asked Musk what he could do to get Donald Trump across the finish line, and Musk answered, “Registration, registration, registration, registration, every single day,” reminding everyone that there are only three days left to do so in Pennsylvania.

“If there's ever a weekend to spend going hog wild on registration, this is it.”

One local resident brought up her concerns about election fraud, and Musk expressed that he could also smell something fishy with Dominion voting machines.

In fact, Musk found it to be a “heck of a coincidence” that Philadelphia and Maricopa County use Dominion voting machines but “not in a lot of other places,” saying that the last thing he would want to do is trust a computer program “because it's just too easy to hack.”

“I know a lot about computers, and I'm like, the last thing I would do is trust a computer program because it's just too easy to hack. It's too easy to add just one line, and it's really difficult to hack paper ballots.

“So in-person voting with proof of ID, which, by the way, every country has. Almost every country that has democratic elections requires in-person voting with voter ID.

“This is weird. It's super weird to not have that. I think that's the only way to effectively address fraud, given that we are where we are today.

“I think we just need a very big margin of victory. If the margin of victory is big enough, then as I say, it's got to beat the cheat,” Musk said.

The bombshell of the night dropped when a voter asked Elon Musk, “Do you think there is a shadow government behind the Biden-Harris administration?”

Musk replied with an awesome answer.

First off, he said, “It's not Biden. We know that for a fact. The dude has barely got two functional neurons.”

What about Kamala? Elon answered that it's not her either. “They just replaced the Biden puppet with the Kamala puppet, very obviously. If the teleprompter stops working, then the puppet breaks, and it's like, ‘Oh, the puppet just starts looping because the teleprompter broke.’”

So who is it? Musk said that he believes “There isn't any one sort of puppet master but maybe a thousand or “a lot.”

During his interview with Tucker Carlson, Musk said that there is a very high chance that Kamala's top puppet masters happen to also be on the Epstein client list.

He explained that's why they're so terrified of a Trump victory because if Trump wins the election, the Epstein client list is coming out.

Musk believes in this crossover relationship so strongly that he said it again during today’s speech.

“[It'll] be interesting to see the crossover between the Epstein client list and Kamala's puppet masters. I bet there's a lot of names that appear in both lists.”

clambo says

Off the subject, I'm in Santa Clara for a few hours and there are a lot of "Teslarians" riding around.

Coming home from Santa Cruz, I think Teslas are the predominant models on the freeway. My wife and I laugh like kids and say 'Tesla' every time we see the glorified yuppie golf carts and I make a sound like an explosion.

I wonder if there are some massive fleet subsidies going on for tech workers in Bay Area.

I also grip my chest in a fake heart attack every time we see another 5G heat ray monstrosity clustered like praying mantis on another power structure. Something bad is happening there, but I guess we'll find out. 5G scalar weapon or mushroom cloud: your choice?

Ceffer says

Coming home from Santa Cruz, I think Teslas are the predominant models on the freeway. My wife and I laugh like kids and say 'Tesla' every time we see the glorified yuppie golf carts and I make a sound like an explosion.

I'm seeing more here in IL this summer/fall. They're going to regret it during winter is all I'll say. We also don't have the charging network that CA has. I'm 20 minutes from the nearest super charger. I just laugh when I see them out by me. You're F'd when we get a 8-10"snow storm and -6ºF temps which happens every year, sometime worse.

Makes sense in CA I guess if you have no family/kids and want to overpay for a car. Our Sequoia got rear ended by a fully loaded box truck. They totaled it, but a Tesla doesn't survive that. Sorry. Not an argument. No one had a single injury. No one got blasted in the face with an airbag. I like big SUV's and I cannot lie.

WookieMan says

I'm 20 minutes from the nearest super charger.

Why would anyone use a Supercharger by their house when they can just charge at home for much cheaper?

Superchargers are typically located strategically near the freeway exits for people doing road trips.

TSLA stock had one of its best days in history today (up 21%) based on strong Q3 earnings.

Regardless of what a person thinks of EV's, I don't think we can deny that Tesla manufacturing and efficiencies are second to none and they can make amazing products at much lower costs than their competitors.

socal2 says

Why would anyone use a Supercharger by their house when they can just charge at home for much cheaper?

Because humans human. I've had my battery die because I didn't charge the cart. Life happens. There's a gas station every 5 miles or less if you forget to fill up in 3 minutes. If you forget on an EV you're screwed. You can't buy a 2 gallon gas can to get you to the next gas station walking a mile or two tops usually.

You have to get towed. THEN you still have to get charged up. It's happened to multiple friends. Big red dots are deceiving as well on a map. Chicagoland only has chargers in the city for the most part and bigger suburbs. There's nothing where I live if I needed it.

On the new build I will put in a panel for an EV or other items in the garage. I'm not averse to EV's, they're 100% not practical for me until they can do a full sized SUV that can get 400 miles on a charge and tow 250 miles with 7k lbs on the hitch. Basically impossible.

I knew it! This explains his weak-ass pussy demeanor towards the Soviets after they gave him "the talk":

Elon attended Bryanston High School. In one incident, after an altercation with a fellow pupil, Elon was thrown down concrete steps and beaten severely by the boy and his friends, leading to him being hospitalized for his injuries. Elon described his father berating him after he was discharged from the hospital, saying "I had to stand for an hour as he yelled at me and called me an idiot and told me that I was just worthless". Errol denied berating Elon but claimed "The boy had just lost his father to suicide and Elon had called him stupid. Elon had a tendency to call people stupid. How could I possibly blame that child?" After the incident, Elon was enrolled in private school.

WookieMan says

Because humans human. I've had my battery die because I didn't charge the cart. Life happens. There's a gas station every 5 miles or less if you forget to fill up in 3 minutes. If you forget on an EV you're screwed. You can't buy a 2 gallon gas can to get you to the next gas station walking a mile or two tops usually.

At least with Teslas, it is practically impossible to run out of juice (especially on road trips) since they give you so many warnings and have precise calculations on battery range based on navigation. If you get really low, the car will reduce speed and navigates you to the nearest charger.

Tesla showed off the future wireless system which will be super easy to just install in your garage and you will never think about charging. You just park your car.

socal2 says

Tesla showed off the future wireless system which will be super easy to just install in your garage and you will never think about charging. You just park your car.

You live in a different part of the country is my point. You likely don't have 3 kids that like to go camping up in Wisconsin. No EV has the space or range with 5 people in the car. Then factor in gear. In a cyber truck I'd be needing to charge up before the IL/WI border. Then in Madison WI.

I can get to my favorite campground without a single gas stop towing 3k lbs of gear/trailer and 5 people. 3-1/2 hour trip turns into 5-6 hours with an EV. My time is too valuable. This isn't debatable.

Tesla is reaching market saturation. Not predicting a date, but it's coming. Where I live less than 1% of people want them and there are none in my town. If you live rural you can't own one. It's math and time.

To further the point. My wife sells $913/hr 24/7/365. No she's not actively working all those hours. But I think you get the point. 1-2 hours is $913-1,800 to charge and an EV that doesn't fit our needs.

That's time and money we don't get back. How much does gas cost? And how much more expensive is an EV than a regular ICE or Hybrid? I lost 2 years of gas between the cost of the car and time in one month. The depreciation. Literally out $20k in a month between charging, time and depreciation. It will only pay off when the battery needs to be replaced to the tune of $20k with future inflation.

I like Musk. I like Tesla. I don't care how many are in CA, NY or FL. It's a pure status purchase. Green and overpriced is what people want to project. It's a Mercedes C300. Congrats you get to drive a Mercedes.... You got the cheap model.

WookieMan says

My wife sells $913/hr 24/7/365. No she's not actively working all those hours. But I think you get the point. 1-2 hours is $913-1,800 to charge and an EV that doesn't fit our needs.

No Tesla owner spends 1-2 hours wasting time charging their car. Even on long roadtrips, the average supercharger time is about 10-15 minutes. Enough time to take a leak and buy a soda at a gas station.

The vast majority of cars are used less than 10% of the day with 90% of the time sitting in our garages, driveways or work parking lots which is where most Tesla owners charge during this huge idle time.

It literally can't be any easier. Once they start launching the wireless charging, you will just pull your car into the garage and be done with it.

But yes, Teslas are less convenient if you are constantly towing in the boondocks and live in very cold climates. Very few drivers in the US have that driving requirement. Lots of Tesla owners have a Tesla for their day to day driving and have trucks or other vehicles for their adventure activities requiring towing. Best of both worlds!

socal2 says

But yes, Teslas are less convenient if you are constantly towing in the boondocks and live in very cold climates. Very few drivers in the US have that driving requirement. Lots of Tesla owners have a Tesla for their day to day driving and have trucks or other vehicles for their adventure activities requiring towing. Best of both worlds!

Or just drive the truck? Or SUV? And that's my beef with EV's. They can't compete. I don't want two cars. I don't want 8 tires. I don't want 8 brakes. Besides an oil change an ICE vehicle is simple to maintain. When I was a dumb ass I went 80k miles without an oil change. Car ran perfect.

Oil is like sand in a way. It's already been broken down. Not talking refined oil. It will last forever. You really only need an oil change if on gravel or dirt roads. Even then it's a sealed system. Not much shit should get into the oil filter.

Also no clearance. I don't off-road (often...) but snow is a bitch here. Especially with drifting snow. 5" snow can blow over a road up to 2' or more and you can't get through without a high clearance car.

I guess people work from home more now, but I can't stand being stuck. We have state road closure every winter that my SUV can still get through. That I know, not a single Tesla including CT can get through.

WookieMan says

I don't want two cars. I don't want 8 tires.

Would think you have at least 2 cars if you are married with kids. One fun car and one utility car.

My wife drives the Hyundai SUV gas car that we use to lug surfboards and people to the beach and the car we will take to Utah this January for our ski trip.

While I get to drive the ridiculously fast and FUN Tesla for my day to day needs for work and around town.

Sounds like your wife makes bank. You should get her a Model S or X plaid so she has one of the world's most amazing sports cars and the safest car in the world for your normal around town driving.

socal2 says

Sounds like your wife makes bank. You should get her a Model S or X plaid so she has one of the world's most amazing sports cars and the safest car in the world for your normal around town driving.

She does. Teslas are sedans basically. She won't touch one. She won't touch a mini van. It's full size SUV or bust. Smallest car we've rented on vacation is a Jeep Wrangler in the USVI. I barely fit in a Tesla because of height.

Fact is that a bigger car is the safer car. Tesla makes the claim by "class" of car. My car could easily kill a Tesla driver if I blew a stop sign going 60mph which is possible in the cornfields where I live. Trust me, you'd die in a T-bone accident with my Armada hitting you at 60mph 9 out of 10 times.

Best case you'd die right away. Otherwise the car would start burning uncontrollably and you couldn't get out and burn to death. Fact is Teslas haven't been on the road in numbers enough to actually prove they're safer. Safety crash tests are planned for.

I also don't care for speed as I mentioned. Fast acceleration is an easy way to get pulled over for reckless driving. And yes that is an offense that cops can pull you over for. I'll take the big slow car that will kill anything that gets in my way and survive at a 90% rate.

https://nitter.poast.org/VigilantFox/status/1850373439153963311#m

A Trump hater infiltrated Elon Musk's rally, but Musk gracefully schooled him with an epic mic drop moment.

TRUMP HATER: “Trump did not and has not accepted the results of the 2020 election, one which has been called the most secure in the nation's history by the former president's own Department of Homeland Security. Similarly, I saw the violent disruption of the electoral vote count on the news during January 6th.

“So, I ask this as a first-time voter who wants to discern the truth. What would you say to comfort the concerns of young voters like me who are worried that voting for a second Trump presidency will lead to democratic backsliding?

@ElonMusk: “The media tries to characterize January 6th as some sort of violent insurrection, which is simply not the case. That is false ... There have to be a lot of guns for it to be a violent insurrection.”

“It's not as though the January 6th protesters had no merit. They had some merit. I disagree with the magnitude of what they did. But it's not as though there were no issues [with the election].”

“Almost every country on Earth has voter ID requirements, but we don't. Why? And why do the same people who demanded vaccine IDs for you to do anything say no ID for voting? Something doesn't add up. It doesn't add up. My firm opinion is that those who say Trump is a threat to democracy are themselves the threat to democracy.”

(Mic Drop)

WookieMan says

She does. Teslas are sedans basically. She won't touch one. She won't touch a mini van. It's full size SUV or bust.

You should test drive an X. Perfect mix to haul people, pets, groceries and a great road tripper.

socal2 says

WookieMan says

She does. Teslas are sedans basically. She won't touch one. She won't touch a mini van. It's full size SUV or bust.

You should test drive an X. Perfect mix to haul people, pets, groceries and a great road tripper.

Don't mind suggestions and don't mind Tesla. That ain't fitting my family. I'm going to have 3 monsters on my hands. They ain't fitting in that back seat. I'm talking 6'5" kids before they can get their own car.

That thing wouldn't even fit 5 camping chairs in the trunk. Plus a wagon just for outdoor sporting events with the kids. Ignore the range topic. Ain't no camping with that thing either. As I've said, my current and former cars would destroy that car, where the sensors would do jack shit if I t-boned it. You're dead.

I won't be sold on it. I am putting in a charging port for the future on the new build to be safe in the garage. I'm not anti EV, I'm anti EV for me currently. Someone needs to make a full sized SUV and you'd get my attention. Until then, enjoy. I'm not buying mid-sized quasi SUV's that can't tow.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/elon-musk-claims-cut-federal-150115514.html

Elon Musk claims he can cut the federal budget for Trump by 'at least' $2 trillion

ERECTION INTENSIFYING

zzyzzx says

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/elon-musk-claims-cut-federal-150115514.html

Elon Musk claims he can cut the federal budget for Trump by 'at least' $2 trillion

ERECTION INTENSIFYING

What load of shit.

Only Congress can cut the spending. Sure, Trump submits the budget. But Congress passes it (or not). Most likely, they will add shit back into it.

And the RINOs will totally get in bed with the Dems to override a Trump veto.

Maybe Elon and Trump will use their bully pulpits to call out the spenders by name and sink their re-election chances.

DemocratsAreTotallyFucked says

What load of shit.

Only Congress can cut the spending. Sure, Trump submits the budget. But Congress passes it (or not). Most likely, they will add shit back into it.

And the RINOs will totally get in bed with the Dems to override a Trump veto.

No wars is a savings. Trump I know will leverage Ukrainian funding and veto anymore money.

Israel, not so much with Jared and his daughter, but I think he cuts back.

There's billions on the border to be saved as well. Besides the MIC these moves don't mess up job numbers too much. The border would be a net gain with construction jobs.

Love him or hate him, Musk has sold more vehicles that 50% of the population doesn't want. I could see him finding ways to cut costs. He know the subsidies he gets. We have a guy that would give no fucks about any industry. He's made his money and he knows what works that the government pays for.

$2 trillion is likely a stretch. Not elected yet, but Trump is a lame duck if elected. All bets are off. He can get away with what he can. There will be cuts in the IRS, FBI, CIA, NSA most likely. We have the best Navy and Airforce on the planet. Keep funding that. There's little need for the employee count in just the 4 I mention. There's likely more 3 letter organizations that could be cut. Department of education for starters. DEA. We have so much waste and do nothing jobs.